The continued adventures of a Newbie blogger

It has been quite the active week. And the results continue to increase.

First, had an interesting email exchange with an individual about my goals and objectives of blogging. He had originally responded to a post I had submitted on Linkedin (http://www.linkedin.com/). We moved to direct communication. My answer has remained the same since the original posts: I wanted an outlet to express myself, promote my business and life philosophy and make money. Got the first two well under way…still lagging on the making money part.

Another email exchange led to me revising and modifying all three of my blogs to improve search engine results. Came from a friend, JY who also was kind enough to forward a post (‘You get to play again tomorrow, http://mykalsreport.blogspot.com/).

Two key results came from the modifications. First, it really ramped up my creative juices and led to a burst of writing and posting. Thanks JY. Second, he sent a link to a blog that promised to improve results http://www.ssi-online-marketing.blogspot.com/. It worked almost immediately after I implemented a number of suggestions including key words in the title, site description and blog roll. I experienced the most impact after adding the blog roll. And it gave me permission to contact a number of other bloggers and ask for a reciprocal link. Great resource.

Also had some good exchanges with other bloggers:

• http://www.afoodcoma.com/. This one came from the blog my son and I maintain, http://realjamaicancooking.blogspot.com/. Turns out this person is a cyclist and wants to try Triathlons. I competed a number of years ago so now another interesting conversation has begun.
• http://therobinsnest.wordpress.com/. Really cool: talking about an individual’s purpose in life. This is a cool blog, you have to check it out.
• http://www.yardedge.net/. My cousin Karin Wilson who works and lives in Jamaica runs this one. Excellent coverage of the culture. Jamaica is not all beaches, ganja and violence.
• And finally for the week, I gained 10 new followers on twitter (http://twitter.com/, follow me ‘Chris_Morales).

I know I have not explored twitter to its fullest yet, but it is an excellent way to update my followers with new posts. As I continue to explore it further, I am learning that I can enter into conversations with my followers and comment on what they have posted.

One specific example of using twitter: saw a post from MacLeans Magazine http://blog.macleans.ca/. They had posted a story about some guy who spent over $1.5 million to renovate his office. The ridiculousness of this prompted me to add my comment about a story right here in Canada that struck me as similarly wasteful: Home Depot Canada spent $11 million to get out of a lease in Toronto. To NOT build a store! Guess who pays. Will now start shopping at Home Hardware, a Canadian company based out of St. Jacobs Ontario.
http://www.homehardware.ca/index/splash. (Confession: we shop at the local Home Hardware store, Beach Builders and are big fans of their customer service).

Enough ranting for the week.

The journey continues.

Thanks for following. I look forward to your comments.